Idle issue(intermitant)

[Zayden]

I have a question, and while this isn't a 3g Accord it is an 84 Accord. But maybe someone will have some insight on things I might be able to check for.

Whats happening, is intermittant.. but often enough you'd think we'd be able to find whats wrong... anyway, the car idles pretty poorly at times(near dying poor, and even to the point it does die sometimes).

Some of the other symptoms include, a kind of gas smell(but I don't think its gas... not sure what it is). It doesn't appear to be leaking coolant into the engine though either(checked oil for that already).

Sometimes after its gotten to operating temperature, and you stop the engine(say to fill up gas), the engine won't start. Have to wait for a few minutes to get it to start. Sometimes it will start, but then quit almost immediately(seconds at most, and regardless of giving it gas).

The engine when running actually runs fine(no noticable power loss). All of this happens regardless of A/C being on. Vaccuum appears fine(had a vaccuum gage on one of the lines to look at that). Timing appears ok also. Visually checked the vacuum hoses for leaks, and couldn't find any(doesn't mean I didn't miss anything, but didn't see anything).

But any help on the matter would be appreciated, thanks!

Danny

[shepherd79]

when was the last time you did the tune up?

[DanG86LX]

Well, I think you have to do some testing around your carb-engine.. When that happen again take the air box off and look at choke, should be wide open - vertical. Also make sure #14 vacuum line has vacuum - that's the one keeping the power valve closed. Maybe the power valve is stuck open.. to check that, unplug #14 from carb and plug it with a screw, idle speed should go to 2-3k. That might clear a flooding problem. But your engine may starve at idle.. to check that have a syringe with gas ready and spill a few drops on top of main bore. If the engine comes alive, idle passages are blocked. That's what happen to me, I had to open carb top and found 1/2" mud at the bottom of the float bowl. Keep posting what you found..

[Zayden]

Well, found out today what it was... it was electrical. The ground that connection the main fuel cutoff valve was bad(right at the valve itself it had broken). Got a new valve hooked everything up, and all is running well again! Only took.. 10 hours of work to figure it out. :D

Thanks for the help on looking around the carb!

Zayden

[Immeraufdemhund]

I've had the nearly the same problem with my car. I have a 87 Accord Lx-i. There are times were it idles around 1k. And then there are times were it idles at 250. If i have A/C on and it tries to idle that low it stalls the car. I dont have a problem starting it. I have also been starting to notice that when i start the car early in the morning and it's kinda cold... (though in TN it never gets cold...compared to MN) the car has a hard time accelerating. It has what seems to be a delay to the gas. To fix it all i have to do is rev the engine a couple of times and it stops doing it for the rest of the day. Anyone got a clue?

[shepherd79]

well, he is what happen to me last week. i went to start the car and it was idling like shit. so i tried to move my car i was forcing it. after i got it moving no matter how much i would floor it it will not accelerate fast enough.
so i started to look around, and after half a day i found out that my distributor is fried. so i am guessing the ignitor fried.
so try to get another distributor from junk yard and see if it will help.

[DanG86LX]

Zayden.. The ground that connection the main fuel cutoff valve was bad
Is this valve on carb? I've seen it on Haynes but I think 3G don't have one, instead we got a idle cut off solenoid..